Contemporary cordless power tools are becoming more common place in homes and on commercial construction job sites. The evolution of cordless power tools has resulted in a large variety of power tools being manufactured in cordless versions. For example, power tools such as nailers, drills, screwdrivers, circular saws, reciprocating saws, scroll saws and sanders are now commonly manufactured in a cordless version. Along with an increase in the type of cordless power tools has come an increase in technical complexity of the cordless power tools. Present day electronic components, such as microcontrollers and memory modules, are sufficiently small such that they can be easily mounted within the housings of many cordless power tools. Some known power tools incorporate such electronic components to collect and store data relating to tool usage and other pertinent information concerning the operation of the tool. Additionally, such electronic components are utilized to store algorithms and programs used to control the operation of the tool.
Known methods of communicating with cordless power tools to extract operational data, input control algorithms, update control programs and/or update control coefficients are generally labor intensive, cumbersome, costly and can reduce the reliability of the tool. For example, the tool may have to be disassembled to gain access to the electronic component. In other instances, additional electrical or optical communication terminals or ports may have to be added to the tool to allow communication with the electronic component. It would therefore be highly desirable to provide a means for communicating with data storage modules and/or control modules within a cordless power tool without disassembling the tool or including additional communication ports.